Trump Says Saudi Nuclear Pact Hinges on

Kingdom Joining Abraham Accords

Report By Y-Trendz

Washington, July 24, 2026 — President Donald Trump has attached a major new condition to a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, declaring that the deal will only be

approved if the kingdom agrees to normalise relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords. The announcement, made in a Truth Social post on Thursday, came just one day after the United States and Saudi Arabia formally signed the nuclear pact, throwing the already opaque agreement into fresh uncertainty.

A Surprise Condition, A Day After Signing

Trump wrote that the nuclear deal "will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords." He also stated that there would be "no enrichment of material" under the agreement, and that the pact "pertains only to non-military use" — remarks that appeared to contradict earlier reporting suggesting the deal could open a pathway for Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium domestically.

The nuclear agreement itself was signed Wednesday by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. The Department of Energy described it as laying "the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership" that would advance "priority economic and strategic objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation." The deal, known formally as a "123 agreement" under the Atomic Energy Act, will now be transmitted to Congress for a mandatory statutory review period, during which lawmakers could block it if both the House and Senate pass disapproval resolutions.

Asked about Trump's new condition, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she did not believe the president had spoken directly with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since posting the statement, though he had reportedly raised the issue with Saudi officials previously. Leavitt maintained that if Riyadh does not join the Abraham Accords, "the deal is off." The Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment on Trump's assertion, and the kingdom had not publicly responded to the new demand as of Thursday.

A Long-Standing Saudi Red Line

The Abraham Accords, brokered during Trump's first term in 2020, normalised diplomatic relations between Israel and several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Saudi Arabia, the region's largest economy and home to Islam's two holiest sites, has never joined the framework and has consistently maintained that it will not normalise ties with Israel without a clear pathway toward the establishment of a Palestinian state — a position Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly rejected as untenable for his country's security.

Despite that impasse, Netanyahu's office struck a notably optimistic tone following Trump's announcement, saying that Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords "would be a historic leap forward" for peace in the Middle East. Whether Trump's ultimatum will move Riyadh closer to normalisation, or simply derail the nuclear agreement altogether, remains unclear. Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies who was quoted by NPR, questioned the durability of the move altogether, noting the tension between a social media post and a formally signed diplomatic agreement.

Proliferation Concerns Already Swirling

Even before Trump's Abraham Accords condition, the nuclear pact had drawn sharp criticism from nonproliferation experts and members of Congress over its safeguards. Unlike the United Arab Emirates' 2009 "gold standard" nuclear cooperation agreement with Washington, Saudi Arabia is reportedly not required to sign the International Atomic Energy Agency's Additional Protocol, which allows for enhanced international inspections. Instead, safeguards would be governed by a bilateral agreement between Washington and Riyadh alone.

Congressional documents reviewed by news organizations indicate the deal could still provide Saudi Arabia with a pathway toward domestic uranium enrichment, contingent on a joint US-Saudi study into whether enrichment is "warranted and commercially viable." Nonproliferation advocates warn that any enrichment capability, however limited, could eventually be redirected toward weapons development. Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said nuclear cooperation "can be a positive mechanism for upholding nonproliferation norms and increasing transparency," but cautioned that "the devil is in the details."

Democratic lawmakers have been especially vocal. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts said Congress "should use its authority to reject this agreement," warning it risks "transforming the Middle East into a nuclear Wild West." Representative Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the deal as reported "would significantly erode existing nonproliferation standards" and called for firm limits on enrichment and reprocessing alongside adoption of the Additional Protocol.

Wider Regional Stakes

The controversy unfolds against a tense regional backdrop. Saudi Arabia has, in the past year, signed a mutual defence pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan, whose defence minister said Islamabad's nuclear program "will be made available" to the kingdom if needed — a move widely interpreted as a signal to Israel. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously stated he would pursue nuclear weapons capability if Iran were to obtain an atomic bomb, a prospect that has loomed large amid the ongoing US-Iran standoff.

Energy Secretary Wright and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have both sought to reassure critics, with Rubio stating that the United States "is not going to reach any agreement with any country in the world that leads to the risk of proliferation." The Trump administration has also disclosed to Congress that it is pursuing roughly 20 similar civil nuclear cooperation agreements with countries around the world, of which the Saudi deal — potentially worth billions of dollars — would be among the most significant.

For now, the fate of the agreement rests on two uncertain tracks: the mandatory congressional review process, and Saudi Arabia's response to a condition that touches one of the most sensitive and long-standing fault lines in Middle Eastern diplomacy.

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This report is based on verified coverage from Al Jazeera, CBC News, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg, CNBC, TIME and The Hill, as of July 24, 2026.